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Costumed Dancers Performing in a Garden Tavern
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (French, 1724–1780)
1756
- Medium
- brush and brown and gray wash, with gouache, watercolor, and traces of graphite
- Classification
- Drawing
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 19.8 x 31.3 cm (7 13/16 x 12 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was known for his rapidly executed, sketchy style, often used to depict performances and social scenes. The exaggerated lifted legs of the dancers seen here imply a comic, theatrical style; no social dance during the 18th century would have permitted such pronounced gestures, especially for a woman. Both dancers wear jackets with irregular hemlines decorated with round bells similar to those found on jesters’ costumes. The lanterns and swags of flowers strung from trees and the small orchestra playing on the right suggest a guinguette, or outdoor tavern with a pleasure garden.
